Bavaro’s has some very important pizza news to share. The popular Neapolitan pizzeria and pastaria will launch its latest concept, Sorellina, inside Tampa’s Hall on Franklin later this month or in November.
Sorellina isn’t the only forthcoming addition to the European-inspired specialty food hall. Fork & Hen, as the Tampa Bay Business Journal reports, is another newcomer focusing on chef-driven soul food. Both stalls are expected to replace the existing culinary projects from local restaurateur Dave Burton: Heights Melts and Heights Fish Camp.
Xilo Street Mexican hasn’t been up and running at The Hall for that long, either. The chef-owners behind the late Piquant, Rosana Rivera and Ricardo Castro, absorbed the former stall of Kôfē with Xilo over the summer.
According to Bavaro’s founder Dan Bavaro, Sorellina means “little sister” in Italian.
“The menu will be a smaller version of our Bavaro’s menu,” Bavaro said in a statement.
The Hall patrons can look forward to pasta, wood-fired pies and antipasti like heirloom bruschetta and meatballs made in-house. Other menu highlights include a vegetarian version of Bavaro’s vodka sauce and gluten-free pizza dough. To perfect the latter, Bavaro trained under Antonio Langone — a resident of Sorrento, Italy, who won the respected International Pizza Challenge’s gluten-free division — earlier this year.
Bavaro’s was the first in Florida to bake traditional Neapolitan pizza in a 900-degree brick oven imported from Naples. To prepare its dough, the restaurant uses a more than 100-year-old strain of live yeast dating back to a Napoli bakery.
“Our flour is ‘Double Zero,’” continued Bavaro. “This means the flour is milled fine like talcum powder and is all natural.”
The flagship location for Bavaro’s opened in downtown Tampa almost a decade ago, and it wasn’t long before outposts in St. Petersburg and at Tampa International Airport followed. A fourth Bavaro’s is expected to debut in Sarasota by the end of the year.
This article appears in Oct 11-18, 2018.